Tag Archives: Westport News

As If Newspapers Don’t Have Enough Problems…

Posted on March 23, 2013 | 22 comments

Yesterday I went to the Merritt Country Store — next to Coffee An’ and Crossroads Hardware — to buy my Westport News.

(Yes, I’ve written for them since Ben Franklin set type. And I still have to pay for it.)

I plunked down my 55 cents. An odd price, yeah, but that’s what it costs.

“65 cents,” said the guy behind the counter.

“No. It’s 55 cents,” I told him. I should know — it’s my paper.

“65,” he repeated. “That’s what my boss says. I just work here.”

“What about other papers?” I asked. “Do you charge more for them than you’re supposed to, too?”

“Yes,” he said. “Except the New York Times.”

He paused. “I just work here,” he repeated.

I know, I know. It’s not the biggest markup I’ve ever seen.

But it’s definitely the weirdest.

Merritt Country Store

22 Comments

Posted in Local business, Totally random

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Westport Arts Center Eyes Jesup Green

Posted on March 4, 2013 | 97 comments

You may have missed this, because the Westport News story came out during schools’ February vacation.

While you were off in Aspen or Anguilla, Paul Schott wrote that the Westport Arts Center wants to move from its 3,600-square-foot Riverside Avenue home, to a 10,000-square-foot building next to the Westport Library.

Where exactly?

To the only space available there: Jesup Green.

The gallery and classrooms would create “a cultural campus” downtown, on the river. The WAC has hired architect Henry Myerberg, who is also designed the library’s “transformation” renovation.

The arts center would like a 99-year lease of Jesup Green, Schott reported. The project would include “burrowing” Taylor parking lot into part of the green. That current riverside lot would be replaced with “greenery.”

The new WAC — which officials hope to begin constructing in 2015 — would cost between $5 million and $7 million. Three donors have already pledged several million dollars, Schott reported.

In the summer, the Westport Public Library lends croquet, bocce and badminton equipment, for use on adjacent Jesup Green.

In the summer, the Westport Public Library lends croquet, bocce and badminton equipment, for use on adjacent Jesup Green.

It’s an exciting concept — and it comes at a time when major redevelopment plans are afoot for the entire downtown area.

But a number of questions have been raised.

  • Aesthetically, how will the area change? Will a new “green” on the flat current parking lot look as nice as gently sloping Jesup Green — with mature trees — does now? What happens when a 10,000-square-foot building — and “burrowed” parking — gets added to the mix?
  • How about traffic flow? What happens to parking when the library and WAC have big events simultaneously?
  • Speaking of the library, where will its major fundraiser — the Summer Book Sale — go?
  • What other options has the WAC looked at? (I already know what certain commenters will say: “Winslow Park!”)

This is the 1st major change to Jesup Green in years — since the library moved next door, in fact. (And eliminated a road that sliced directly through the green — who remembers that?)

Once upon a time, Jesup Green was bordered by a Little League field — and the town dump. Controversial landfill — and construction of the library, Levitt Pavilion and Riverwalk — have enhanced that area immeasurably.

Will a new Westport Arts Center do the same?

Let the debate begin.

97 Comments

Posted in Arts, Downtown, Library, People

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Westport’s Warden: Not A Tree-mendous Job

Posted on February 22, 2013 | 37 comments

Between school vacation and the news story’s placement on an inside page (below the fold), many Westporters may have missed a very interesting Westport News piece on Wednesday.

Jarret Liotta described Westport’s Tree Board — a 3-person body “hoping to plant the seeds of renewal for its role in town government,” in areas ranging from education and outreach to political action.

Westporters are very protective -- but also ambivalent about -- our trees.

Westporters are very protective — but also ambivalent about — our trees.

Trees are on every Westporter’s mind these days. We don’t like them toppling power lines whenever the wind blows. But we also were upset when a number of them suddenly disappeared from Main Street just before Thanksgiving.

Westport’s Tree Board is seeking ways to influence public discussion of trees — and to get the public interested in the board itself.

But perhaps the most interesting info in Jarret’s story was buried near the end: the fact that Westport has only a 1-day-a-week tree warden.

Also of note (though not mentioned in the article): The tree warden lives about 20 miles away.

First Selectman Gordon Joseloff’s proposed 2013-14 budget includes $170,000 “to create a full-time tree warden position and to increase the town’s overall tree work,” Jarret wrote.

But right now — today, as we all love and fear them — there is almost no money for monitoring, removing, planting and pruning trees.

Or for anyone to oversee them.

37 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Environment, Local politics, Organizations

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Plowing Policy

Posted on February 10, 2013 | 16 comments

As Hearst Connecticut’s media editor, John Schwing sends out interesting info coming directly from — or supplemental to — Hearst papers (including the Westport News).

John (@SchwingPost) just tweeted this “Snowplowing Policy.” Posted on WestportCT.gov, our town’s official website, it says:

There are 123 miles of streets in Westport maintained by the Department of Public Works (DPW). Snow removal can cost up to $2500 per hour, therefore, it is important for DPW to use its resources wisely with cooperation from the residents to provide the appropriate response while minimizing the cost.

PLOW ROUTES – The streets are plowed and sanded in order of priority. Main (collector) roads are addressed first with special attention to steep hills and difficult intersections. Side streets are done next, then deadend streets. A single pass will be made on side streets to keep them open, but primary emphasis will be placed on main roads until the storm has stopped. This may not seem fair to the residents of side streets or deadend streets, but main roads must remain open.

A plow crosses the Post Road bridge, early in Friday's blizzard. (Photo by Paul Schott/Westport News)

A plow crosses the Post Road bridge, early in Friday’s blizzard. (Photo by Paul Schott/Westport News)

BLOCKED DRIVEWAYS – All snow plows angle the same way – to the driver’s right. When going by they cannot avoid pushing the snow in front of a driveway. The homeowner is responsible for access to his driveway. The only way to avoid extra shoveling is to wait until DPW crews have completed their final clean up on the street.

SIDEWALKS – Per town ordinance, businesses are responsible for keeping all sidewalks along their property clear of snow and ice.

MAILBOX DAMAGE – The town repairs or replaces only mailboxes and/or posts that are actually struck by a plow blade. Usually a paint mark or tire tracks supply evidence of a mailbox strike. The town does not repair or replace mailboxes and/or posts that fall from the force of plowed snow. Mailboxes and supporting posts must be installed to withstand the rigors of snow removal, including the force of snow pushed from the street onto the roadside.

PRIVATE PLOWING – The town prohibits plow contractors from pushing snow from driveways or parking lots onto town streets. This practice is dangerous and impedes the town’s snow removal efforts. If there is no other alternative to pushing snow into the street, the plow driver must plow off the windrow left across the street by re-plowing until the road is safe. This may not necessarily mean bare pavement, but certainly it should be no worse than when the driver began work.

Residents who have a question or complaint should call Public Works at (203) 341-1120.

16 Comments

Posted in Local politics, Weather, Westport life

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Living In A Westport Down Under

Posted on July 25, 2012 | 13 comments

The “06880” tagline is “Where Westport Meets the World.”

You can’t get much further from Westport in this world than New Zealand.

But wait! What about Westport, New Zealand?

Vin Donnelly

Vin Donnelly counts as a very alert “06880” reader. The other day he was in China — also very far from Westport.

He was on business, missing his Westport greatly. Searching online for something hometown-related, he stumbled on our hometown.

Hey, any port in a storm.

Vin’s Westport is also on the coast, on South Island.

And a river runs through it.

But that’s not where the similarities end. For a while, Vin said, he thought “06880” was a blog about his Westport.

For example, the local paper is called…the Westport News. 

Recent headlines include:

  • “Fitness centre tops 400 members”
  • “Bakers battle for perfect pie”
  • “10 drink drivers in court” (They ranged in age from 20 to 75. One was “almost three times the legal limit.” Click here for details.)

Downtown Westport. The tall building on the left is the Municipal Chambers. I could not tell whether the stores on the right are chains, or mums-and-pops.

Westport is also — according to a New Zealand website — “home to world-class painters, sculptors, potters, wood carvers and other artists.”

Galleries, studios, workshops and craft co-operatives dot the area. Artists use high-quality, locally sourced tree burls for wood turning.

For all I know, there was even a Fine Arts Festival in the other Westport last weekend. On second thought, I doubt it. It’s mid-winter.

Vin asked me about life in our Westport. He’s never been to the US. The only Americans he knows are those he picks up as they hitchhike around New Zealand.

Another connection! I pick up hitchhikers too. Although the last one was back in the Carter administration.

So, for all those wanting to see more of Westport, New Zealand — whether here in “06880” or, like Vin himself, stuck in China — here are a few more photos.

Westport’s beach. This was taken early in the day, before the New Yorkers arrived.

We have hills. They have cliffs.

Westport, New Zealand has a bit more open space than Westport, Connecticut.

13 Comments

Posted in Arts, Places, Totally random

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West Bank Action

Posted on May 3, 2012 | 13 comments

First there was Saugatuck.

Then came Church Lane.

Soon, another sleepy area of town may be revitalized, with the arrival of new restaurants.

This time it’s the west bank of the Saugatuck River. Though an easy walk from downtown, few folks bother. Mentally, that area — behind the Inn at National Hall, next to Save the Children — has been No Man’s Land.

Now it may play Brooklyn, to downtown’s Manhattan.

The Westport News reports that on May 17, the Planning and Zoning Commission hears proposals for 2 new dining spots.

The owners of Fairfield’s Safita hope to open a Middle Eastern restaurant at 6 Wilton Road. That’s the old Vigilant firehouse. It housed a couple of pizza places; more recently it was a kitchen store.

Plans call for 50 seats, a bar and an outdoor patio. Very cool.

The Vigilant firehouse that may house the Middle Eastern restaurant is the slender building in the left-center of this photo. The MOJA restaurant would go on its right.

Also on the menu: MOJA Restaurant & Bar, planned for 12 Wilton Road next door to the former firehouse. The News says the menu would offer Japanese cuisine and “elements of South American flavors to make a very tasty, healthy and distinctive fare that will resonate with kids, teens and adults young and old.”

Despite Westport’s many eateries, we do not have a Japanese/South American spot for every age group. So that’s good.

The restaurants are part of a broader redevelopment planned for the area, including National Hall.

More parking is in the works. But I’d still like to see some kind of footbridge, luring linking people over the river, to the interesting architecture and offerings — culinary and otherwise — across the way.

Until then, here’s wishing good luck to the intrepid owners serving up a couple of new restaurants in a section of town that certainly needs them.

13 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Places, Restaurants, Saugatuck

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“Scoop” Schuyler

Posted on November 26, 2011 | 6 comments

In the 1910s, Phil Schuyler joined the Canadian Royal Air Force.  He was an American — a descendant, in fact, of Philip Schuyler, a general in the American Revolution and U.S. senator from New York — but the Canadians accepted 18-year-olds.

He became a pilot, and crashed his Curtiss Jenny airplane into Lake Ontario.

Phil Schuyler, in his Canadian Royal Air Force days.

Schuyler enrolled in Harvard, graduated in 1921, and joined United Press Association — the forerunner of UPI — as a reported.  Working for various New York City dailies, he became friends with E.B. White.

In mid-career he started his own PR firm.  He founded the Hickok Belt in 1950 — given to the best professional athlete of the year.  Rocky Marciano was an early recipient.  One of the few failures of Schuyler’s career was trying to get the trophy back, to award to the next recipient.

Schuyler also helped founded the Young Presidents Organization, for people who become CEOs of major companies before their 45th birthdays.  YPO still exists today.

Still later, he worked for Editor & Publisher.  His last assignment was to write a story about the news coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy.  He was so involved with this project that, years later, his mind tricked him into thinking he was actually in Dallas that day.  He went to his grave believing he was an eyewitness.

After retiring from E&P, he became the Westport News sports editor.  He was not averse to juicing up stories — making them more dramatic — but he was a very good writer, and he taught his craft well.  I know that first-hand:  He was my 1st boss, when I worked for the News the summer after my junior year at Staples.

Phil Schuyler, in his later years.

Schuyler married into the Bennett family.  He lived on South Compo Road, in a home that belong to the Bennetts since the 1700s.  He loved playing tennis, and one of his favorite courts was Parke Cummings’ — one of the first in Westport, and not far down the road.

His family knew him as “Pops.”  At the paper, his nickname was “Scoop.”

Schuyler’s last act as a reporter was to write his own obituary.  It ran, fittingly, in the Westport News.

After his death, a Staples Tuition Grants scholarship was founded in his name.  For several decades, aspiring journalists have benefited from the Phil Schuyler Scholarship.

Funds have nearly run out now.  One more link to a unique Westporter is in danger of fading away.  Perhaps a few folks — maybe those long-ago athletes he wrote about so “creatively” — will make a donation, to keep “Scoop” Schuyler’s memory alive.

(Donations to the Philip Schuyler Fund can be sent c/o Staples Tuition Grants, PO Box 5159, Westport, CT 06881-5159.  Click here to donate online.)

6 Comments

Posted in Looking back, Organizations, People, Staples HS

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Remembering Dexter Brooks

Posted on September 4, 2011 | 9 comments

Much of B.V. Brooks’ life seems to come from an earlier, more traditional New England era.

His real name was Babert Vincent.  His nickname was “Dexter.”  He attended Deerfield Academy and Dartmouth College.  Like his father — also named B.V. — Dexter was a faithful Yankee Republican.

B.V. Brooks

He followed his father into real estate development.  (In the 1950s, B.V. Sr. developed one of Westport’s 1st shopping strips — Westfair Center, opposite what is now Super Stop & Shop — and an adjacent housing development behind it.  Dexter Road is named for his son.)

In 1964, the Brooks family launched a new local paper, the Westport News.  According to Woody Klein’s history of Westport, it was formed as an opposition voice to the established Town Crier, seen as “the voice of the Republicans in power.”  The Brookses were aligned with Westport’s more conservative Taxpayers Party.

Ironically, the News made its biggest name — and ultimately drove the Town Crier out of business — with a very un-Republican crusade.  In 1967 United Illuminating announced plans to build a 14-story nuclear power plant on Cockenoe Island, less than a mile off Compo Beach.

Brooks’ paper — led by its activist editor, Jo Brosious — began a 2-year crusade against the utility company’s purchase.  In 1969, the town of Westport bought Cockenoe for $200,000.  Our water has been swimmable — and our homes safe — ever since.

The News tilted more Republican in later years, but Dexter Brooks never was a ham-fisted, you’ll-say-it-my-way-or-be-gone publisher.  I should know:  I spent 3 years as sports editor there, and my byline has appeared in the paper ever since I was a Staples junior.

In 1999 the Brooks family sold the Westport News — and its other Brooks Community Newspapers, in towns like Fairfield, Norwalk, Darien and Greenwich — to the Thomson chain.  Dexter stepped down as publisher that year.

He remained president of the Brooks, Torrey and Scott real estate company.  It was another family business:  Torrey and Scott are the names of his sons.

(Fun fact:  Brooks Corner — where his newspaper and real estate company once had offices — is named for the family.  The fact that Brooks Brothers now has a clothing store there is pure coincidence.)

Dexter Brooks’ impact on Westport — both as a real estate developer and a publisher — were enormous.

And no one could say he did not know his town.

Woody Klein’s book contains an anecdote about Dexter Brooks.  Once, a fellow member of the New England Press Association asked him how a small town like Westport could support an 84-page paper.  Where did so much news and so many ads come from? he asked.

“You don’t know Westport,” Brooks replied.

He explained that thanks to shoppers from far and wide, the town’s retail sales per capita were the highest in the state.

“The number and quality of restaurants is renowned far and wide,” he continued.  Home prices and income levels were quite high too.

But, Brooks continued, statistics did not tell the whole story.

At the heart of the difference here, in my opinion, is the dynamics, the widespread activism that engulfs Westport.  We kid that the shortest time span in the world is the time between when the light turns green and the guy behind you blows his horn.

And Westport boasts the world’s shortest time for organizing a group “pro” and a group “con” on any local issue.

Dexter Brooks died on Thursday, after suffering a heart attack while vacationing in Mexico.  He was 84.

His family’s legacy — and his own — will live for years.

9 Comments

Posted in Downtown, History, Local business, Looking back, People, Places, Real estate

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A New Patch For Westport

Posted on November 2, 2009 | 6 comments

In the mid-1960s the upstart Westport News challenged the established, staid Town Crier.

Earlier this decade WestportNow.com roared onto the scene, altering the speed and means by which Westporters got their news.

This week, Westport’s media landscape changes again.

Westport Patch is scheduled to launch Wednesday, the day after elections.  Like its sister sites in Wilton, Darien, New Canaan and Ridgefield — and Westport-type communities in New Jersey, including Maplewood, Scotch Plains and Westfield — Westport Patch is one answer to the undeniably decreasing (and fast fading) role newspapers play in American society.

It’s also a higher-tech, more interactive — and sexier — version of WestportNow, one of the 1st such sites in the nation, and at the time a pioneer of the community website genre.

The Westport News website is similar to Patch — though many news stories, editorials and police reports are posted after they appear in print.  The News site has not yet gained traction in town.

 

Westport Patch will include breaking news stories and photos.  It’s also got:

  • Maps — so when you read about (I’m making this up) a rash of burglaries on Peaceful Lane, you’ll know exactly where it happened
  • Videos — the Darien site includes a story on new lights for peewee football fields; the RTM rules committee going “off the record,” and a Darien High traffic campaign that students don’t like
  • Announcements of coming events, births, even — hey, this is what hyper-local means — a mention that “Fred Gaston, 50, of Wilton finished in 8th place in Sunday’s New Canaan-to-Wilton Great Train Race”
  • Sports results — this is pretty flexible; the Darien site recently noted “DHS Wizards Gear Up for Quidditch”
  • Classifieds
  • Police and Fire reports
  • Restaurant reviews
  • A townwide directory, with info on everything from beaches, businesses and doctors to the railroad station, town officials and movie theaters (a slim category in Westport, for sure)
  • Comments by users

Interactivity is key.  Anyone can add events to the community calendar — and post announcements,  photos, even videos.

Each Patch has its own editor.  Westport’s is Liz Mitchell.  She’s completely new here, but spent the past several weeks learning the town.  She’s met with everyone from Staples principal John Dodig and police chief Al Fiore to First Selectman Gordon Joseloff — who just happens to be the founder of WestportNow.com.

Westport Patch is free.  It is not, however, a non-profit.  Patch Media Corporation is owned by AOL.  Word on the street is that AOL is pouring big bucks into the 12 existing Patches (with dozens more to be rolled out soon).

How will Patch make money?  A 2-tiered ad system allows business owners to create online ads.  Patch’s sales team works with individual businesses to “best satisfy their needs.”

Westport Patch’s influence on Westport could be profound.  It could alter the way we get information about our town, and discuss that info.

It could help spread news about activities and events in an unprecedented, unfathomable way — bringing folks together in a cyber version of the old town square.  For a good part of the 20th century, Westport’s main source of news was the Town Crier. A new town crier soon bursts on the scene.

Having said that, the jury is out.  I’ve spoken to people in several communities that already have Patch.  They like it a lot — but it hasn’t become a habit.  It has yet to generate a buzz, they say — they don’t hear friends and neighbors saying, “Oh, did you see on Patch today…?”

Perhaps that’s because those towns don’t have a WestportNow, so they haven’t gotten into the habit of turning to their computers for local news.  Or perhaps — like Betamax — it’s a great idea at the wrong time.

No one yet knows if this Patch will stick.  But one thing is for sure:  On Wednesday, the big news in town will be the news itself.

(“06880” likes the idea of Westport Patch — and thinks there’s a place in town for a blog and another news source.  Time will tell.)

Millburn Patch

A screen shot from the Millburn (NJ) Patch

6 Comments

Posted in technology, Westport life

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“News” News

Posted on April 28, 2009 | 5 comments

For over 30 years the Westport News was the proud anchor of Brooks Corner, among downtown’s most prime real estate.

Current tenant Brooks Brothers has nothing to do with the corner’s name; it’s just a coincidence.  “Brooks” is B.V. Brooks, who founded the News.  It was, its motto clunkily declared, “A hometown newspaper in a town of homes.”

In the mid-1960s the News was a feisty tabloid upstart — David to the staid, gray Town Crier Goliath. 

The Westport News earned its chops early.  Fearless editor Jo Brosious led a spirited fight against United Illuminating — the public utility that hoped to buy Cockenoe Island for use as a  nuclear power plant.  Thanks to the paper, our shore today is pristine — and Westport is not Three Mile Island.

That crusade made the News indispensible.  For 3 decades it chronicled town life.  Its downtown location was geographically smart, and journalistically symbolic.  It pulsed with Westport’s beat, because it sat right there at its heart.

The move a few years ago to Sconset Square was symbolic too.  Brooks  Corner could command higher rents from 2nd-story office tenants (the paper had long since moved from its ground-floor space).  Though the News’ new newsroom was just a few steps away, the rickety staircase and shrinking staff lowered its profile, lessening its impact throughout town.

Last year the paper moved from Westport entirely.  No longer owned by B.V. Brooks — the “Brooks Community Newspaper” name is a final, vestigial nod to the local past — the News decamped to an antiseptic office building in Norwalk.  True, it was right over the Westport line — but the symbolism was again strong.  The “hometown newspaper” had left its “town of homes.”

Yesterday the News moved again.  Hopscotching Westport, it leaped over to Fairfield.  The paper now shares office space with the Fairfield Citizen, and is overseen by Citizen editor Frances Moore.  Two key staffers — editor Will Rowlands and lifestyle editor Carol King —  were among 44 Connecticut journalists whose positions were eliminated Friday by Hearst, the current owner.

Another 80 jobs are on the chopping block soon, according to reports.

A new chapter has begun in the Westport News’ long history.  For news lovers’ sakes — and the best, most informed interests of our town — let’s hope this story ends well.

5 Comments

Posted in Economy, Local business, Media, Westport life

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